mother<\/a> spoke of losing her beloved husband, a young humanitarian, to a mindless act of terrorist violence aimed at the UN Headquarters in Baghdad in August 2003, only four weeks after she\u2019d given birth to their first child. I wasn\u2019t the only one who cried as that child, now a young man, hugged her; enveloped in the shared pain and resilience that had marked his entire life.\u00a0<\/p>\nTen years later, Philippe still wonders why our governments are eager to shout from the rooftops that they want to protect us, and are yet so reluctant to act when that protection fails.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Governments\u2019 failing response<\/p>\n
Many states consider an act of terrorism to be an unlikely future event. As their country\u2019s terror threat status is low, they do not prioritise integrating strong victim support componentsin their crisis response. <\/p>\n
What they do not consider is that their citizens move around. We travel for work, to visit family, to sight-see. The locations that attract large groups of people are the same places that attract terrorists. <\/p>\n
So, even if your country is not a target, your citizens are.<\/p>\n
States also disregard the fact that a declared terrorist attack is not the only prerequisite for a robust crisis response with a strong component of victim support. <\/p>\n
An incident will only be confirmed as being a terrorist attack once the intention of the offender is determined. Victims may thus need to wait for support, while the authorities try to establish the offender\u2019s intentions.<\/p>\n
\u2018Terrorism\u2019 definition problem<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what is wrong with only having a crisis response for victims of terrorism. <\/p>\n
On 24 March 2015, all 149 passengers and crew members on board flight 4U9525 were killed when the co-pilot crashed the aircraft into the mountain. <\/p>\n
In May 2023, three mass shootings over a period of 36 hours shook Serbia. Nine schoolchildren and their beloved janitor were killed in a Belgrade school on 3 May, the next evening three young people died in front of another school in Dubona, and six others\u2019 lives were cut short around a campfire in Malo Ora\u0161je. <\/p>\n
On 20 December 2024, five people were killed and at least 205 injured at the Magdeburg Christmas market.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Apart from spreading terror in the population, all these incidents had one other thing in common \u2014 none were officially declared acts of terrorism.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There is still no international definition of terrorism; the term denotes a political category that requires political consent. <\/p>\n
With increasing incidents of self-radicalisation and lone-wolf offenders, their motivation and intent is becoming ever more difficult to establish. <\/p>\n
However, responding to the needs of victims caught up in acts of mindless violence, in all its forms, should not be political; victim support should be part of the social contract between governments and the people they serve.<\/p>\n
Therefore, our response must not simply be based on the intent behind the acts of the perpetrator, nor on whether someone was at the scene as a passer-by or as a first responder. Our response must be commensurate to the needs of those who suffer the consequences of the event.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Recognising victims of terrorism and understanding the pain and suffering that results from hate and destruction, is the only way forward. Societies must be prepared to respond quickly and support victims into the long term. <\/p>\n
These are not options, not nice-to-haves, but requirements which states must legislate for.<\/p>\n
We cannot predict where the next tragedy will occur; but we can be ready to support those whose lives are shattered by it. We must move forward; knowing that in the future, victims will be recognised and supported.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We owe it to the 12-year-olds in their classrooms who are unaware that their parents\u2019 lives could be in danger; to the teenagers who may lose their lives on a school trip and those who will feel guilty for having survived; to the new-borns and their mothers who don\u2019t know that papa will never come home.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
They are not prepared, so we must be.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When mass violence strikes, victims need support immediately. Too often, however, support systems must first wait for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[5754,211,210,16029,16027,16028],"class_list":{"0":"post-44474","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brussels","8":"tag-typedefinedterm","9":"tag-belgium","10":"tag-brussels","11":"tag-identifier4403","12":"tag-namesociety","13":"tag-termcodesociety"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116261188064076548","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}